CLEVELAND, Ohio – With the holiday season upon us, food banks across Northeast Ohio are working hard to meet their annual surge in demand.
This year, the challenge feels heightened as inflation and rising living costs continue to exacerbate food insecurity.
For organizations like the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank and Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, the challenge is not just meeting the seasonal spike but also addressing a year-round increase in need.
Learn how these three food banks are stepping up this holiday season:
Greater Cleveland Food Bank
The Greater Cleveland Food Bank’s Thanksgiving distribution alone is estimated to reach 2 million pounds of food this year—double its usual weekly volume, according to Kristin Warzocha, president and CEO of Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
This includes six semi-truckloads worth of turkeys going to partner agencies, which distributed food almost every day leading up to Thanksgiving and some distributing on Thanksgiving Day itself.
At the food bank’s community resource center – a facility that not only distributes food but addresses the underlying issues of hunger through access to housing, employment and healthcare – the Thanksgiving distribution went beyond turkeys. It also included fresh potatoes, cauliflower, greens, berries, mashed potatoes, stuffing and side items to complete the typical holiday meal.
“Thanksgiving and so many of our traditions are around food,” Warzocha told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. “We want to ensure families across our community have a holiday meal they can celebrate with.”
But the increase in demand spans beyond the holidays, according to Warzocha. In recent months, the food bank served 425,000 individuals across six counties, 100,000 of whom were seeking emergency food for the first time.
“A lot of those folks are part of a working family but not making enough to make ends meet or senior citizens living on a fixed income,” Warzocha said.
Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio
Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, a sister organization to Greater Cleveland Food Bank, traditionally sees its heaviest demand during October and November. Julie Chase-Morefield, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, says this year is no exception.
“Thanksgiving is a meal that is really about sharing a table with others and people you love. It becomes very important to not only just being able to put food on your table but also being able to have that shared experience with your family,” Chase-Morefield told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
Lorain County’s largest distribution takes place at Lorain County Community College, where for Thanksgiving alone, the food bank serves 2,000 families. Region-wide, a total of 16,000 to 18,000 families received food from the organization.
“We always see an increase in need this time of year, in part because of the holiday season but also because it’s getting colder in Ohio,” Chase-Morefield said. “With kids needing winter coats and boots and heating bills starting to come in, there’s just additional expenses this time of year.”
Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank
In 2023, the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank provided access to enough food for 27.2 million meals – or approximately 35 million pounds of food. This year, their distributions are about 20% higher when compared to the same timeframe last year.
“By year’s end, we’re estimating that we’re going to distribute anywhere between 36 and 37 million pounds of food and that’s on track with what we distributed in 2020, the first year of the pandemic,” Raven Gayheart, public relations and communications manager for Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. “We’ve just seen month after month, more and more food is leaving our building and going out into the community.”
She attributes this year’s rise in demand to the climbing cost of groceries and inflation, which can be especially tough for those living on a fixed income, like social security.
“They have to get to the end of the month before they receive that next benefit and we would much rather them come to the food bank or to a food program within our network than to choose to not eat so that they can stay in their home or pay for gas to get to their job,” Gayheart said.
Gayheart said that food insecurity is a year-round issue because “hunger doesn’t take a holiday.” But what makes the holidays more difficult for families already struggling, she added, is that so many of the traditions during November and December center around meals that incorporate high-price protein items.
She hopes that anyone struggling with hunger during the holidays – or anytime throughout the year – knows that the food bank is there to help them.
“Maybe you’ve had a car repair, an unexpected medical emergency, things like that push people into food lines and that’s what we’re here for,” Gayheart said. “We don’t want anyone to have to choose other expenses over stocking their pantry or fridge.”